On August 5, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that the country's army had taken control of the village of Sichneve, in Dnipro. This is the result of efforts to advance in eastern Ukraine over the past several months.
Notably, this information was given just 2 days after the head of the Donetsk People's Republic, Mr. Denis Pushilin, announced that the Russian army was starting a new attack on Dnipro.
"For the Velikaya Novoselka area, Donetsk, our units are improving their position. They have been stepping deeper into Dnipro," Pushilin said in a video posted on his Telegram channel on August 3.
Previously, on July 31, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian forces had also taken control of the entire Chasov Yar - an important Ukrainian stronghold in the Donetsk region, under Donbass - after months of fierce fighting.
According to a source familiar with the matter, the Russian landfall in Chasov Yar has caused the largest loss of personnel to the Ukrainian army since the conflict broke out in 2022.
The source revealed that the Ukrainian army has faced as many as Thousands of soldiers in casualties under the rear of Chasov Yar, but did not say exactly how many.
Although Ukraine affirmed on August 4 that it would maintain strategic positions, especially in Pokrovsk - the logistics hub in Donetsk - it did not provide information on the situation in Dnipro - where Russia announced it had advanced.
Russian forces have now controlled about 20% of Ukraine since launching a special military operation in February 2022 and have officially merged the four regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Russia has said it has taken full control of Lugansk and parts of other regions, along with Crimea - the peninsula that was annexed by Russia in 2014.
